Securing access to a physical location, such as a home or office location, is a continuing concern for property owners. Traditionally, manual locks have been used to secure homes and offices. However, it may be impractical and/or inconvenient to unlock and lock a door by hand every time it is used, especially in a business setting where many people may use a given door every day. Thus, many doors are left unlocked during the day, and are supposed to be locked at night and/or when the property is left unattended. However, a lock may be accidentally left open, increasing the security risk at the location.
In many offices, manual locks have been replaced by automatic keycard-based access systems. In keycard-based systems, automatic locks and keycard scanners are placed on or near facility doors. When a person, such as an employee, wants to enter the door, he or she presents a keycard, which may contain an active and/or passive circuit, such as an RFID tag, which is scanned by the keycard scanner. A keycard number, such as a serial number, is read by the keycard scanner and is compared at a server to a list of authorized keycard numbers. If the scanned keycard number matches an authorized keycard number, access is granted and the door may be temporarily unlocked to permit entry.
Conventional access control methods have a number of drawbacks. For example, manual locks may be left unlocked accidentally. Even if they are locked, manual locks can be picked, broken, or otherwise compromised, for example, if a key is lost. While keycard systems are convenient, they may be prohibitively expensive to install, especially in a home and/or small business setting. Furthermore, keycard entry systems may be compromised if a keycard is lost or stolen and the loss of the keycard is not reported and/or the keycard number is not promptly removed from the authorized list when it is reported as lost or stolen.